When Lynn and Gys Koops opened the door to Koops Bikes for the first time in downtown Prince George 40 years ago, their timing was perfect.
Acting on a tip from his father, Gys learned an existing bike shop on Fourth Avenue was for sale and he and Lynn took it over.
Back then, bikes were for kids.
But not long after they opened the store, 10-speed bikes and their bent-down handlebars and lightweight frames became all the rage for adults, a fun and economical transportation alternative to their gas-guzzling vehicles. It was also the time Canadians started adopting the fitness craze.
"If you were an adult riding a bike at that time, you probably would have been considered a little weird," said Gys. "Now, if you're an adult not riding a bike, you're looked at a little weird. It's totally flipped over in the last number of years."
Gys, 68, grew up on a farm near the city at Reid Lake and worked in the logging industry, where he learned his mechanical skills. But still, learning how to fine-tune planetary pinion gears and clutches in a three-speed hub took some figuring, and there's a doctor's touch required to pack wheel bearings and leave them loose enough so they don't bind. Gys, a truck driver, was two years into his marriage to Lynn when they hit upon the idea to become two-wheeler entrepreneurs.
"We just liked the stability of being in town," said Lynn, 58. "He was driving truck when we first met and if you want to start a family it's nicer to be home."
The original Koops shop downtown was right across from Salvation Army thrift store.
After two years in their downtown location, Koops was forced to relocate when the property they owned was expropriated to make way for construction of the Ramada Hotel. They set up shop in the corner of the Nicholson Centre on Nicholson Street and tapped into a new market of young customers and their families.
"It was nice when we moved because we felt more in the residential centre," said Lynn, the Koops accountant. "When we were downtown, parents would never let their kids ride to the shop. It wasn't really pretty down there. This is a more family-friendly area."
They moved into a smaller store in the same strip mall 13 years ago.
Koops celebrated its 40th anniversary on Saturday with bike raffles and prize giveaways. Keeping up on the trends is always a key to Koops's success and they've carved out a niche catering to family riders, mountain bikers and BMXers.
Marianne Koops, the daughter of Gys and Lynn, does most of the ordering and is the BMX specialist. Given the terrain of the city and its surrounding trails, mountain bikes always sell well, and more people are asking for road bikes and the latest hybrids, which come with racks and fenders and no-pedal gear-shifters. Trailers for kids are also big sellers. So are balance bikes for tots, small two-wheelers for tots that come without pedals to teach youngsters the basics of balance, which eliminates the need for training wheels.
"A lot more people are pushing healthier living and getting kids off the couch and away from video games," aid Marianne, 38. "Biking is one of the least expensive sports out there, in the long run."
Lynn's brother John McPherson works with Jeff full-time on repairs and assembling bikes. Jeff, 34, has been working there since he was 15. The dynamics of working closely with the family at the shop six days per week has its testy moments and each of them has a corner of the store designated as their own space when time alone is needed.
"It's a family business and there are no days off, you're always doing something -- working on the website, looking through catalogs, and sometimes I'll take wheels home to build them at night," Jeff said.
This Sunday, the 40th annual Koops Classic Purden to Prince George 62.5-kilometre bike race starts at the Purden Mountain store. The race offers a handicapped, staggered start, as it has since it began in 1983, to give inexperienced racers a chance to beat the veterans in the sprint to the finish at Pineview elementary school.
